The first, and sadly ONLY, true Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza I ever had was during a business trip out to Chicago a few years ago. I was DEAD tired after having just arrived a few hours earlier from a previous meeting in London, England, but knew that this would likely be the only night I'd get a chance to try out a Chicago Pizza as the next two days were filled with meetings. So, dead tired, I asked the concierge at the hotel (can't remember the name of the hotel, but it was in the heart of the city) about the closest place for a true Chicago Pizza. I was hoping that a Lou Malnati's was nearby as I had spent countless number of dollars on their frozen pizzas shipped to me. (Living in CT, I can get every type of pizza out there except Chicago Deep-Dish. What the pizzerias around here purport as "Deep-Dish" is actually just a pan pizza with an incredibly thick crust and NOT true Chicago Pizza. So the only way I could get any type of real Deep-Dish was to order the pizza online and have it shipped to me. It's just that doing so is VERY expensive and leaves me with a lot of shipping material to get rid of. I desperately wanted a local place to make this pizza, but none do).

The concierge said that the only good place I could go within walking distance was Giordano's. So I prepped myself for the long walk and made the trek out there. I remember quite a line to get in, and having my order taken at the door while waiting to be seated. I went and got the standard cheese stuffed pizza and was in heaven. Reading through the forums here, I can't wait to try this again.

A few weeks back, I used a recipe from America's Test Kitchen for a Lou Malnati's type dough, and while it came out INCREDIBLE, it was a bit of work with all the laminating with butter and whatnot. So trying a more "simple" recipe is definitely good. I have a ball of dough for use in the 9" Malnati's metal pan, I had bought from them a while back, that is rising in the fridge. Made it this afternoon and will use it tomorrow. Got plenty of great parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese, and italian sausage that I'll use on this. (Can't recall the brands right now). Also have two 12" x 2" deep dish, straight walled steel pans that I got from AMCO on their way to me tomorrow. Going to have fun seasoning them and using them frequently.

I mixed the water, yeast, sugar, salt, and oil in the mixing bowl and let it activate. Once I saw it was bubbling, I went and added about half a cup of flour and mixed it until it was like a pancake batter. Once mixed, I added the rest of the flour and mixed it by hand until it was just coming together. At this point, I put my hands in there and kneaded it for only a few moments (probably about 90 seconds or so) until it wound up forming a cohesive ball. At this point, I put it into an oiled bowl, covered it in plastic wrap, and let it ferment in the refrigerator overnight.

Today, I went and pulled out the dough from the fridge, punched it down and let it come to room temperature while the oven and pizza stone heated up to 425 degrees for an hour. When the dough was at room temp, I rolled it out on a VERY lightly floured countertop with a rolling pin. It rolled out BEAUTIFULLY and almost seemed more like pastry dough or pasta than it did pizza dough. I used about 2/3rds of the dough for the base. The recipe I got from a website online (realdeepdish.net) was designed for a 12" pan. My 12" pans I ordered online hadn't arrived yet, so I used the 9" Lou Malnati's pan I had, therefore it gave me enough dough for the top. I buttered up the Malnati's pan to ensure the dough wouldn't stick, and laid out the circular dough sheet I had into the pan with the ends drooping over the edges of the pan. I then went and pressed the dough down firmly to the pan. Inside there I added slices of Sorrento Part Skim Mozzarella Cheese, a layer of Johnsonville Mild Italian Sausage, and another layer of cheese slices. I then rolled out the rest of the dough and laid it on top of the pizza pressing the edges together and trimming off excess. Opened up some holes in the top layer, then ladled on the sauce to cover.

The sauce was made from a 28 ounce can of drained, whole San Marzano tomatoes that did not have citric acid or other preservatives in there, a teaspoon of a salt, two medium cloves of minced garlic, about five large leaves of fresh basil finely chopped, a teaspoon of onion power, a few drops of concentrated balsamic vinegar, a tablespoon of olive oil, and a bit of black pepper. I then mushed up the tomatoes and let the sauce rest and meld for about twenty minutes. I didn't measure how much sauce I put on there, but it was just enough to cover the top and there is still about a cup of sauce left in the bowl.

The pizza went into the oven on the hot pizza stone and baked for 35 minutes. The result when it came out is the image below. It was INCREDIBLY flakey and buttery, and the entire thing was cooked awesomely. (If that's even a word).

My apologies for this experiment not being as scientific as most posts on here, but it was the first time I cooked a stuffed pizza like this and I am incredibly proud of how it came out. My roommate gave it a try and said "Thanks Justin. Now that you can cook pizza like this my girlfriend will dump me because I'm going to wind up fat as a whale. Are there more slices left?"

Wolfgang, can I ask what is 6 in 1 tomatoes, grew up in Chicago, LOVE all of all the PIZZAS, always thought STEWED TOMATOES were used in the DEEP DISH PIZZAS, that is what they taste like, I'm baffeled.